


error: communication not found

by yououui



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 02:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yououui/pseuds/yououui
Summary: and there was only one bedoh my god there was only one bedaka: Shiro and Keith are forced to discuss their relationship and the direction it's gone, and maybe find some things out about one another that they were too afraid to ask.





	error: communication not found

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the Sheith Happens discord Valentine's swap! Happy Valentine's day Kendal! I hope you enjoy it!

“You only have one room? For the _both of us?”_

Shiro scratches the back of his head as Keith glares down the poor ambassador with such fire, Shiro is afraid she may actually melt under purple eyes. She looks between the two of them—Shiro in his Captain’s uniform, Keith in his Blade of Marmora outfit—and holds her hands together in front of her in some sort of plea. Maybe for Keith to not kill her.

“I’m sorry,” She says timidly. “We didn’t think it would be a problem!”

“It’s fine,” Shiro says with a friendly enough smile. He puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, and feels Keith tense under his hold.

“There are no other rooms?” Keith makes an effort to soften his voice and takes some of the heat out of his gaze. He is the leader of Voltron, after all, he can’t act like a hot headed kid. 

She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, no. They are all taken by the other diplomats here for the meeting.” She looks between the two of them sheepishly. “We didn’t realize it would be a problem… for the two of you…”

There’s an implication between her words, but Shiro is too distracted by reining Keith in to read into it. It’s probably just about the fact that they’re best friends, and everyone seems to know just how close they are.

“It’s fine,” Shiro repeats. “Really. Keith and I don’t mind.”

The girl looks to Keith for confirmation, and he just shrugs and crosses his arms, giving up. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

She leads them to their room and dutifully bows before retreating so they can settle in for the evening and rest before the dreaded Day of Meetings set to take place. Shiro swipes the card she gave them and the door slides open. He and Keith stand in the doorway, silent.

“There's only _one_ bed?” Keith hisses. He storms into the room and throws his bag into the floor. “Fine. _Fine._ I’ll sleep on the floor. No use fighting it.”

“What?” Shiro follows after Keith, the door slipping shut behind him. He puts his bag on the bed and lifts his palms to Keith in a show of good faith. “Keith, come on. Don’t sleep on the floor. You and I have shared smaller spaces—remember when we had to sleep in the bunker of the Black Lion with Kosmo and Krolia?”

Keith swallows, doesn’t look at Shiro. “Yeah, I do.”

The simple words cut through Shiro like a blade. He isn’t sure what has gotten into Keith; he didn’t want to attend the meetings at all, but they requested representatives from the Garrison and the Blade of Marmora. Keith tried to get out of it, but Krolia and Kolivan have been too busy with their own missions and sent him against his wishes. 

Shiro had thought it would be fun. The meetings would be boring, but it’s a little bit more tolerable with Keith there. Apparently Keith doesn’t have the same mentality.

“Please just share the bed,” Shiro tries again. “It’ll make me feel better. The floor is too cold and hard. I promise I’ll stay as far to my side as possible.”

Keith finally, _finally,_ looks at Shiro, and that iciness in his eyes seems to crack a bit at the edges. He sighs and throws his hands up into the air. “Fine.”

Shiro takes it as a win, even if the way Keith avoids eye contact and conversation as they get ready for bed hurts a little bit. He isn’t used to Keith looking at him like that. They haven’t spent much time together recently, though. Maybe something happened.

They end up in bed together, back to back, laying on top of the covers with inches of space between the two of them. Keith didn’t even change out of his flight suit. Shiro stares at his prosthetic arm that sits on the table near his side of the bed, the blue glow of the quintessence dimmed in rest. 

“Hey… Keith?” Shiro asks into the darkness. Even with the space between them, he can feel that Keith is just as tense as he is. There’s no way he’s asleep.

As expected, Keith grunts in response, not even bothering with a full word.

Shiro clears his throat. “Is there something… is something going on? Do you need to talk?”

A beat passes between them. “No.” Keith’s voice is clipped and tight, not allowing for any familiarity between the two of them to pass.

“Oh…” Shiro taps his fingers against the bedding. He feels awkward, talking to Keith like this, but he isn’t going to turn and face Keith unless Keith makes that first move. And it definitely doesn’t feel like Keith wants that. “Are you sure? You know you can talk to me, you just seem—“

“No, I don’t want to talk,” Keith snaps, his voice breaking in the middle. “You’re the one who—never mind.”

If possible, it now feels like there is even more space between them, a wall of tension so thick Shiro feels as though he cannot pass. Guilt works its way through Shiro; he isn’t sure why Keith is angry, but if it’s because of something Shiro has done, he can’t help but feel remorseful.

“Keith, if there’s something I did, I’m sorry—“

“No,” Keith interrupts. “No. If you don’t know why you’re apologizing, then don’t. Obviously nothing is wrong to you. It’s just me. I’m just… no. It’s nothing. Nothing is wrong.”

Keith speaks so quickly it leaves Shiro dizzy and confused. “Obviously there is something wrong, Keith,” Shiro tells him, because they’re best friends, and Keith isn’t the type to hide things from Shiro, and Shiro is the type to confront Keith when he gets like this and locks people out. “I’m sorry that I don’t know, but you know you can always tell me.”

“How could you know?” Keith asks, voice biting through the dark, anger and other emotions Shiro cannot place bleeding through the cracks. “How could you possibly have any idea when you haven’t _been there?”_

_Oh._

For a moment, all Shiro can hear is Keith breathing. Silence stretches between them, the wall grows ever taller. Shiro curls his hand into a fist and the guilt is now weaving itself through his heart, choking him. 

“That’s what’s wrong.” Keith’s voice startles Shiro, especially the sudden softness it holds. The edge from before is gone, his tone going from broken glass to still water in the span of a few moments. “You’re not there, at all. We’ve barely even said two words about… everything. The clones. The fight.”

Coldness washes over Shiro’s entire body, the same way it does each time he’s reminded of the battle fought between his clone and Keith. He knows it wasn’t him, he knows that even if it were, it was only due to Haggar’s control. Still, he can’t help but see himself as the one that caused so much pain and misery to befall Keith. Memories of the fight are fragmented and disjointed in his mind, but he sees them all from his own eyes, feels the heat of the glowing blade from his hand, smells the stench of Keith’s skin burning under it. Sees Keith, looking at him in fear and hopelessness.

Shiro never wanted to talk about it. He never wanted to be reminded of it, even though he’s forced to think of it each time he looks at Keith. It was one reason why he distanced himself from Keith. And Keith had never said anything about it. He seemed… understanding. Like it was difficult for him to look at Shiro, as well. Shiro didn’t consider that Keith may not have felt the same way, after all.

“I’m sorry, Keith, I…”

“You don’t have to apologize, Shiro,” Keith tells him. “I know it’s difficult for you. I don’t want to push you, and… I see now. I relied on you too much, and you had bigger and more important things to focus on. I should have known that things would change as time went on and that I couldn’t just keep clinging onto you and holding you down.”

Keith’s voice gets quiet as a breath near the end of his confession. Shiro sits up straight, unable to keep his back to Keith any longer, and looks down at his friend, curled on his side with his hair covering his face. 

“Keith, _no._ ” Shiro reaches out to touch Keith’s arm but hesitates. He curls his hand into a fist and shakes his head. “You aren’t holding me down. You could never. If anything… it’s the other way around.”

That gets Keith’s attention. He turns to peer at Shiro over his narrow shoulder, then pushes himself up. He almost looks offended. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Shiro swallows and glances away. Suddenly, it isn’t quite as easy to look at Keith anymore. “...You have so much ahead of you Keith. You always have. I never wanted to be the one to hold you back from your potential.”

Keith’s brows pinch together and he shakes his head. “Shiro, you never—“

“I did, Keith. I did,” Shiro continues. “I’ve always been so grateful for all you’ve done for me. I wouldn’t even be here—I wouldn't be _alive_ if it weren’t for you. You saved me, Keith, more than once. But then, you… you were willing to _die_ for me. You were willing to give up everything to save me. I never want to put you in that situation again. I can’t. I can’t let you settle or sacrifice yourself, just for me. So I thought if I stepped back and let you be _you_ and everything you are, you would be better for it.”

Keith doesn’t respond immediately. He sits there, staring at Shiro with unwavering eyes, soaking in his words. Slowly, Shiro feels the tension melting between them, the wall coming down brick by brick.

Finally, Keith asks, “What do you mean, ‘Just for you’? Like you’re not worth sacrificing things for?”

Shiro blinks and shakes his head, but that just makes Keith look even more determined, as if it’s his mission to prove Shiro dead wrong. “Keith, I’m not—“

“You _are.”_ Keith reaches out and puts his hand over Shiro’s wrist. They both look down at the point of contact, and Keith swiftly pulls his hand away and looks down at the wrinkled blanket between them. Says, softer now, “You are, Shiro. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me? I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for _you._ I never would have been able to save you if hadn’t saved me first.

“I know you would never hold me back, because you were the only one to keep pushing me forward. But if I had to, I would give up anything I could to help you. My future, my life, the _universe._ All of it—Shiro, I—“

Keith cuts himself off short and looks away, a tooth digging into his lower lip, like he has to physically keep himself from speaking his next words. And Shiro can’t know for sure what Keith was about to say, but he has an idea. 

The memories are fractured, but there are some things Shiro knows; Keith told him he loved him, Shiro hurt Keith, and Keith was still willing to die for him.

“And besides,” Keith continues with a voice as soft as a lullaby. He still doesn’t look at Shiro. “You have so much ahead of you, too. We don’t have to hold each other back. We can keep moving forward… together. Like we did before.”

The ice is gone, and all that’s left behind is comforting warmth. Shiro smiles and reaches forward to put his hand on Keith’s arm. Keith shuts his eyes for a moment, then lifts them to look up at Shiro and _lord,_ does he have the most unique and beautiful eyes Shiro has ever seen. Shiro had always known Keith was meant for the stars, beyond them even, because he could always see them dance in Keith’s eyes.

“You’ve changed a lot, Keith,” Shiro tells him. “I guess that’s why you’re such a good leader.”

Finally, Keith’s lips quirk up in a smile. “I learned from the best. Even if he was a little _old._ He’s given me some good advice.”

Shiro chuckles to himself and shakes his head. “Yet for everything that’s changed, you’re still the same Keith. My… My best friend.”

Keith blinks at Shiro, then smiles gently. He looks validated in a way, proud even, like he needs to be reminded from time to time just how important he truly is. Shiro doesn’t mind. He’ll tell Keith every day for the rest of their lives if he has to. The rest of his life with Keith. The thought is comfortable, like home.

Shiro lets go of Keith’s arm to lift his hand and rest it over the scar that streaks across Keith’s face. The tissue is rough under Shiro’s fingers, though the lines are clean, not like the jagged edges of Shiro’s own scar. Some people have even thought it to be a Galra marking, with how similar it is to Krolia’s. Keith usually just laughs and waves it off without sharing the true origin story.

Keith told Shiro once that he can hardly feel anything there now. He doesn’t share that he can still feel the stinging pain from time to time, especially when he dreams, or that under Shiro’s hand, it burns in a different way.

“I’m so sorry, Keith,” Shiro says quietly. “I’m so sorry.”

Keith pulls back a bit and shifts his gaze to the side with a look of sorrow. Shiro’s hand stays hovering in the space by Keith’s cheek and leaves Shiro’s fingers tingling even without the physical contact. “Don’t apologize, Shiro. It wasn’t really you.”

“It feels like it was,” Shiro whispers.

The room falls into silence once again. Shiro thinks of everything that has happened to lead to this moment, from that day years ago, when he first met Keith. 

How different would his life have been had he never met the fiery and gifted pilot that would soon become his best friend? Certainly he wouldn’t even be alive. Keith was one of the only people in Shiro’s life to encourage him to go on the Kerberos Mission, despite his health. Without the push, he may have never gone, and while that would have meant not being subjected to Haggar’s torture, his illness would have caught up to him soon enough. And even if he had gone without Keith’s encouragement, who would have been there to rescue him from the Garrison? To be his right hand in Voltron, to find him even within the valley of death?

Shiro smiles to himself. Keith was right—they have been pushing each other forward. He feels another streak of remorse for trying to pull back from Keith, to reduce their relationship to something less than it really was when he should have known that Keith would have never let that happen. Shiro probably would have given in as well and gone running back to Keith. He was a fool to think anything could keep them apart, even his own stubbornness.

Because being away from Keith is not something he can fully fathom. It’s easy to let it happen in the short term, to say he’s busy with work and let themselves go their separate ways. But in due time, Shiro knows he will always return to Keith. It’s always Keith.

Shiro’s heart flips in his chest and his cheeks warm.

Shiro clears his throat and finally lowers his hand that has been sitting near Keith’s cheek this whole time. “There are some things I can’t remember clearly,” He says, getting Keith to look over at him. “From the clone. If you’re up to it, I think it would be good if you could… fill in some of the blanks. I want to know everything that happened.”

Keith nods once without hesitation. “Of course, Shiro.”

“There are some things I remember, though.” Shiro swallows. “Some things are clear.”

Keith hums in response and lifts a brow in a silent encouragement for Shiro to continue, should he want to. Shiro clears his throat again. He isn’t sure if he entirely _wants_ to, not in this specific moment anyway, but he knows that he needs to. He needs to tell Keith after being such an idiot. He can’t let Keith go again.

“Keith… I love you, too.”

Keith’s eyes go wide, but within a moment, his face crumples and he looks down at his hands. Shiro frowns, his blood still rushing in his ears at his sudden confession and his stomach doing weird things, especially because he wasn’t exactly expecting _that_ reaction.

Keith looks very sad. He sounds very sad, as well. “I know, Shiro. You don’t have to say it. I know you love me…” Then, quieter, “Like a brother.”

 _No,_ Shiro thinks immediately. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts before he yells that at Keith though. Keith had been the one in the past to compare them to brothers, and Shiro supposes that in the beginning, sure, that was a way to describe how close their friendship was. Then things changed, for Shiro anyway, but he hadn’t wanted to push those feelings onto Keith. The idea now seems to break Keith’s heart, leave him melancholic and despaired.

Shiro lets out a long breath. “No… not exactly.”

Keith looks up at him again. He doesn’t look very convinced.

“I do love you Keith. But not like a brother.” Shiro smiles. “You’re my best friend.”

Keith looks down at the space between them and smiles. “Yeah… you’re my best friend, too.”

Keith reaches out and takes Shiro’s one hand in both of his. The simple touch leaves Shiro dizzy, but he doesn’t say anything. He just hopes Keith can’t feel the way his pulse pounds as Keith fiddles with his fingers.

“I’m sorry I got angry,” Keith says as he bends Shiro’s index finger.

Shiro nods. “I’m sorry I pulled away.”

Keith looks up at him, still smiling. The starlight is back in his eyes, blocking out any of the sadness that had been lingering there before. They seem closer than they were before, somehow. Shiro can see the little flecks of black and the thin streaks of lighter violet in Keith’s eyes, little nebulas and galaxies.

“And don’t apologize for the scar,” Keith tells him. “Now we match.”

Shiro snorts and shakes his head. “Yeah, I guess you’re right… two peas in a pod.”

Are they even closer now? Shiro isn’t sure if it’s his imagination or not. But then Keith glances down, down at Shiro’s lips, and _oh_ he looks so pretty like that, with his eyes half closed and his dark lashes fanned against pale cheeks.

Keith lifts his chin, tilts his head. Shiro follows suit like it’s natural, tipping his head down until their lips are slotted together in a kiss. Keith makes a desperate little noise that shoots straight into Shiro’s heart and grabs at the front of Shiro’s shirt to pull him even closer. 

The kiss isn’t long, but they are still breathless and flushed when they pull apart. They regard each other for a moment before coming together again, Keith’s hands moving to lock around Shiro’s neck as Shiro clasps his one hand against the base of Keith’s skull, his fingers buried in the thickness of Keith’s hair.

The world tips and they’re lying down, Keith under him—and he fits so nicely there—with one leg hooked around Shiro’s knee. Shiro moves his hand to balance himself on top of Keith and they just keep kissing. Shiro wants to keep kissing Keith for eternity, and then for a day after that.

Keith’s mouth opens against his and their tongues slide against each other. Keith’s mouth is hot, delicious, somehow tastes vaguely of cinnamon. Shiro means to groan, but it comes out as a needy whine that Keith swallows up and returns in full with a hearty moan. It’s perfect, it’s beautiful, it’s everything Shiro could ever want. He’d be content to stay just like this, with his lips over Keith’s and Keith’s tongue in his mouth.

They pull apart again with a gasp and look at each other with shocked eyes, as if neither of them can believe that really just happened. But it did. Shiro can see it. 

There’s a line of spit connecting their mouths, another drop slipping down Keith’s cheek from the corner of his lips. His hair is pushed back, exposing all of his blushing face and his big eyes to Shiro. Shiro is sure he doesn’t look much better, and his thigh is between Keith’s legs, dangerously close to his crotch, and this night could be headed for disaster very soon.

Shiro pushes himself up on his hand. “I—I’m sorry, Keith I don’t know—“

Shiro yelps when Keith grabs him by the back of the neck and pulls him close again. “I told you,” Keith says with a dangerously low voice and an even more dangerous look in his eyes. “Don’t apologize.”

Shiro is left gaping down at Keith until Keith takes mercy on him and pulls him into another heated kiss. Shiro falls into easily, falls into Keith with no problem at all, and decides that maybe he wouldn’t mind seeing where a dangerous night like this goes. Not as long as it’s spent with Keith. Because he could be anywhere, doing anything, would be happy to take the risks and leap into the unknown, as long as he could do it all with Keith.

“I love you,” Shiro says again into Keith’s mouth. 

Keith groans, nods, opens his mouth and lets his breath ghost against Shiro’s lips. “Love you too. Love you always.”

Shiro smiles, happy beyond words and his heart alight.

Only Keith. Always Keith.

—

The next day during the meetings, Shiro and Keith stay glued at the hip. Under the tables, hands are clasped together, whispers are shared, kisses stolen in empty hallways. The other diplomats see them, but pay it no mind. It’s no surprise, after all. Everyone in the universe seems to know that the Captain of the Atlas and the pilot of the Black Lion are in love and have been for a while.

It’s why they arranged for only one room.

Shiro and Keith make sure to stop by the girl’s desk to thank her for the arrangement.


End file.
